Bell Nasya, your turning one!

One year.  Whew, she made it to one year.  I sometimes wish I could write about the pretty in pink birthday party I held for her one year birthday or all the dreams we dream for her bright future or simply that I even got her a gift.  But I can’t.  Interestingly enough, all I can think about on this quiet late night just hours before her one year birthday chimes in is how absolutely grateful I am to God that she is alive and strong.  I begin to wonder if it is in fact coupled together with living in a community where many children don’t live to see their 5^th birthday due to malnutrition, sickness and just plain out poverty that strikes down at the heart of many families.  Years ago, I had the expectation – the confidence that if and when a child dies there needs to be clear explanation and surely everything was done to prevent it, right?  Has living here in the rural mountains of Burundi, surrounded by so much pain and suffering completely flipped that idea upside down for me?  I hope not.

Isabella Nasya (Nasya meaning miracle in Hebrew) is the name we gave her, Isabella meaning devoted to God.  Bell for short was a miracle from the day she was born when the doctors declared it a miracle that she lived.  Her heart beat stopped, the only doctor who was on call casually stopped in to wish me luck before she went to preach…  God timing, I tell you.  Power cuts, next thing you know I am getting an emergency C-Section, they are pulling her weak and limp body out and then comes the miracle.  She lives.  8 months later she nearly goes into respiratory failure with a combination of RSV and Pneumonia as she struggles to breathe the entire drive down to the city from our mountains in the north.  That was a tough one...  Yet, just in the right time they got her oxygen levels up and hospitalized her and soon she was on her way to recovery.  I remember those moments of hopelessness, desperation and the Savior I ran to in the pain and confusion.  There’s no greater feeling then to know that whatever trials we may enter into in life… He is right there with us, sustaining us, holding us... reminding us that we are not alone in that pain, in that confusion.  And His truth begins to gently work all that out… unto His glory.

Bell Nasya.  She has in every way taught us to trust and depend on God in ways we have never deemed possible.  She teaches us to cling to Him, the One who is faithful, who comforts and works on our behalf, the One who can and will continue to do miracles in our lives.  For now, for forever… may she live out the very purposes God intended and created her for – unto His glory. 

I love the way she dramatically throws herself on us for affection.

I love her big eyes, I love even more when Isai says “Why what big eyes you have Bella”

I love how she watches Kai and jumps into the mix with him, is strong and doesn’t let anyone mess around with her!

I love her cautiousness, and deep love and affection.

I love that she has my toes… well, just my toes.  And I don’t even like my toes all that much – but I love that she has a piece of me.

I love her sense of adventure; independence… and her ‘go with the flow’ attitude as we strive to raise her to the best of our ability in a world unfamiliar, inconsistent and pressing at times.

Bell Nasya.  You are loved.  So loved our child.

For the afflictions of the righteous are many...

 

For the afflictions of the righteous are many

and the Lord delivers them out of them all…

This is truth.  This is what I will stand on this day.

You know the saying “when it rains, it pours…”?  Well, that could possibly begin to describe the past week we have had as a family, as a ministry as… as a whole.

We had some unfortunate situations happen at our house in which turned into one of our staff stepping down from his position.  He did security, and his position transformed through time into being together with our son Malaki while I worked over the last 2 years.  Honestly, he was and still is like a son to us.  Days have been hard for Kai, he sure did love him and has been crying a lot since he is gone.

There was a fire in one our kids homes, and put out without anyone getting hurt… thankfully.  There has been some division within some of our staff towards one another… best described as character indifferences, low-conflict management right?  Let’s just say we are working towards humility, understanding and communication.

Little things, all adding up… you know like your son getting sick and vomiting everywhere and when you go to get water, there is no water in the pipes all morning… coming from 3 ½ years with no running water we learned to be prepared; but now being in a house with running water all the time we didn’t think about not having water. 

Isai and I feel the pressure from all sides, for quite some time now and are working out a balance – one that is healthy for us, our family and a work that we desire to build in a strong and sustaining way.  He actually headed out on Tuesday for 3 days to go pray and fast at a guest house in the mountains and promised he would text me as soon as he arrived safely.  He needed some time, to just sit before the One who knows the beginning and end of this story...  the story He has chosen to include us in.  No text.  I thought well maybe he jumped right into some quiet time (even though it was out of character for him to not call). 

The next day I headed down to my beloved bible study and I say that because these women are just simply amazing.  Period.  Exhausted and weary I arrive in the city, next thing you know – my car breaks.  A great mechanic came and lifted out the shredded belt for the motor… much appreciated.  Tried to get ahold of Isai because he is our mechanic, well “our everything man” usually.  But no answer or connection.  Picked up Kai from a friend and headed back up country to settle in for the night with the kids. 

Thinking a lot about not having talked with Isai, I called our friend for a man’s perspective to hear his thoughts if I am just a worried wife… or something could have happened.  In the end I think we both came to the same conclusion that where ever Isai was, he would be ok.  Plus, I know all the surrounding mountain people know where to find us if something happened to him up-country (I mean, with few foreigner’s around it’s not hard to know who is who.)

Later that night, I received a text from Isai saying he got really sick and is in the hospital.  It was night time and the road is bad and somewhat dangerous for various reasons… I did have a short lived moment of weakness in the idea that I would drive anyway; until one our Burundian staff was adamant that I shouldn’t take the drive until morning.  I agreed, and really appreciated him holding his ground on how he felt about it.  It’s Interesting… the clinic he was at was one of the 7 clinics that our staff recently visited to conduct some research as we establish our health center;  the most impressive at that, offering free care at times for those who don’t have money as well as a huge facility.

When he arrived at the guest house the day before he began to have a little diarrhea but by the second day he had excessive diarrhea and vomiting; in the evening right before the priest of the guest house went to go get the doctors his temperature reached 104 F and upon the arrival of the doctors they told him to go to the shower to lower his temp before they transported him to the nearby clinic.  The two doctors who came to get him come from Check Slovakia and Romania and speak English which in itself was a miracle… and hour and a half into the rural mountain, these doctors work.  We have never seen them and knew nothing of them, yet at the right time they were there.  They brought him to the hospital and started him on treatment for Typhoid fever and Malaria because they couldn’t do blood testing until the morning and needed some immediate intervention. 

Isai had tried calling me for a day and a half and also me as well his way from different carriers just in case the connection didn’t work because of his location.  But to no avail.  First thing in the morning a few of us headed out with Kai and journeyed on the ibara bara ribi.  (The bad road)… 2 hours later we arrived and it was such a relief and a precious moment just to hold Isai.  He was doing much better and the treatment was surely working.  They did blood tests and are pretty sure it is Malaria, and are continuing treatment.  Please pray that his body will be strengthened and that every bit of that Malaria will be gone.  I had to return home again for Bell, but will go back tomorrow and hopefully be able to bring him home. 

For me, the words from this song resonate and strengthen my soul this night are as follows:

I will sing, sing, sing to my God, my King... let there be a victory, with you singing over me…

Coveting  your prayers, and believing for His strength and joy in this season.

Burundi's Central Market, many hopes and livelihoods lie in the ashes.

Central Market, Bujumbura, Burundi, January 28, 2013 (Rmey Ndayisaba)

The central market, undoubtedly was my favorite place to go to and is no question one of the main sustainers of Burundi’s internal economy, is now but ashes… but not just ashes… the hopes and livelihoods of many Burundians lie there buried deep in those ashes.  Right now, the crisis for many families is imminent.

Early Sunday morning, a fire started in the central market and turned into a raging inferno within a short span of time.  I was driving to our friend’s house when I looked up and saw an intensifying smoke tunnel, resembling the shape of a tornado towards the center of town.  I drove closer, and began to see hundreds of young men and boys speeding towards that direction in the back of big trucks and pickups – it was clear that a disaster was happening before everyone’s eyes. 

Immediately my mind began to race thinking - fire… burns… good trauma hospitals, none… people trained and available to do first aid on site for burn victims… possibly not enough?  I returned to our friends and within a few minutes, it was clear that Isai was thinking what I was thinking.  Let’s make ourselves available to a possible need for immediate response first aid.  Our friend quickly loaded us with burn gels and bandages, and offered to take the kids for the day…

We parked a few blocks away in the case that the fire would spread and for the hundreds of thousands of people in the streets, the further away from the chaos the better.  As we got out of the car, many people began running; even with small children saying the fires were spreading… they were fearful and clearly believed they were running for their lives.  Isai assured me that he didn’t think the fire could spread a few blocks away.  We continued on foot, and the closer we got the more chaotic and unpredictable it became.  We approached many of the police officers in their stance inquiring where they were caring for those who were injured from the fires and they kept pointing closer to the market.  Finally just about a foot-ball field away, we approach a police truck with some of the head officers nearly in the midst of 10’s of thousands of people very compacted and close.  We informed them we are here to help any teams that may have arrived to give medical assistance and they stated that at that point, they did not know of any casualties’ or injuries and surly there were not any locations set up at that point to care for injured people, but they asked us to stand by and would inform us when a location was known. 

So we waited. And watched.  And as the smoke inferno turned into a blazing fiery furnace emotions flooded the streets.  Women sobbing because their means of support have been ripped from them right before their very eyes, others angry that nothing could be done, while others were simply in a state of shock.  There were even large crowds seated within 50 yards to the burning mass… no perimeter’s on our side were set at that point.  Every few minutes things were exploding within the market (most likely oil, alcohol and other flammable things)  Some of the times, it was so intense that it caused the masses to run and skitter 10-20 feet almost causing a riot type of environment.  But they remained, nonetheless and waited…

Big trucks were barging in through the crowds to empty out any of the outside shops, office supplies filled one truck, and hundreds of large hard covered suitcases were rushed out on the tops of heads in the other direction.  People were panicking, there were a lot of things, a lot of thieves – who once caught would be beaten by the surrounding crowd.   We were thankfully by the police truck so when the crowds rushed and pushed, we had a solid mass to be near.  At one point, a man who seemed to be a bit gone in the head was chasing people with a large wooden plank, and behind him, the police were chasing after him.  There were small kids, big kids, the young and the old, together, watching the hopes and dreams and basic livelihoods of so many burn in the whaling monster of a fire… before their very eyes.  No water in site.  It was such a dramatically hopeless disaster, and all knew it would have an effect on them – somehow.  How the fire started…? Many accusations and ideas have been thrown around, but nothing confirmed at this point.

You see, this market could be estimated to have 1,000 + shops big and small, both the rich and the poor shop there; it is a place that was so universal it clearly brings deep devastation to the nation.  You can imagine the hopelessness when food prices go up… and just a few days ago a large portion of the population was just barely getting by.  Burundi needs an intervention.

Early afternoon was the first signs of some sufficient assistance, with a military helicopter in site, loading water from the lake nearby and dropping it over the top.  We had seen fire trucks early on, but no water.   It was clear that this fire was going to take over the entire market, in which is almost a whole block in size.  No one could stop it, no one could do anything.  Just sit, and watch.

News reports later spoke on 4 confirmed dead, and many injured having been taken immediately to the hospital.  One of the people who died was mentioned to be a woman with her child who ran into the market to save her things; another was a man who supposedly had big investments inside.  The fire began before the market opened on Sunday, in which minimized the amount of people that could have been killed or harmed in that sense. I can imagine there will be more accurate reports as the days pass...

Early Monday morning, I had to return to Buja after returning to the mountains on Sunday afternoon because many of the pickups we had to do were impossible due to the stores closing.  At this point, the entire surrounding of the market was completely off limits with a ton of police.  To my surprise, the market was still smoking, more than 1 day later.  The transportation system with buses that brings people in and out of the center was completely relocated as it used to sit on the markets edge.  Thousands of people are seated at the perimeters of the police posts… it was clear that many of them were shop owners waiting to see what was left of their things, wanting to know what to do next… who would help them, who would guide them.  It was the first time I have ever driven through the capital and looked people in the eyes and knew everyone was thinking about the same thing, in complete devastation.  What do we do next?  Where do we buy food at a reasonable price?  Where do we go to work?  As the main road going right through the very heart of the capital was shut down, other roads were used for people to move through the city which seemed to cause chaos and frustration.  Many sidewalks were quickly turned into places to sell rice, beans and other staples that would usually be sold in the market.  The city has been turned upside down.  

Today I think of the women I would sit for hours with who owned little shops in the south end of the market, as we search for used clothes for Malaki when he was born.  They thought I was crazy having my big belly and going up and down the shops doing the last minute buys.  I think of the young boys and men who tried to sell bed sheets and blankets to me for too much money for the first few years and saw my persistency and finally gave in to a reasonable price and I became a regular; they did their best to entertain Malaki as I was fascinated by all the bed sheets right at my feet brought from all around the world.  I think of some of the ladies who we knew from Knama when we lived near them in 2006… they worked the outskirts of the market.  I think of the woman who helped me just last week when all the surrounding venders were selling mosquito nets for unspeakable prices, she brought me into her wooden shack and set me up with the right people who sold me nets for the kids.  I think of the old man who was lame with one hand and no legs, I shook his hand every time as he sat in the same place for as long as I can remember begging for people to help him.  From the young girl I just bought school materials from to bring back to our kids...  We talked, I joked with her that she had better be giving me a good price.  There are so many memories in this special place that was just days ago a booming economy for Burundi.  And all of these memories involved people, people who we have grown to appreciate – many who lived off of what they made each day in this once thriving market and had little or none to spare.  What Burundi has experienced is unimaginable… and can even be difficult to fathom the disastrous impact it has had on the nation.

Please be praying for Burundi, families and shop owners, that they would put their trust and hope in the Lord in such a time.. Pray for the governement that they would have the wisdom to respond to this crisis.  May God comfort, strengthen and restore all things.

Will you do something to help them, today?  We are going to be collaborating with others who are bringing aid; together we can help families recover from this disaster.  If you are interested, please contact us at thecriesofachild@yahoo.com or make a donation on our website with the subject line: Emergency relief fund.